Downton Abbey: The Exhibition has landed in Boston at The Castle at Park Plaza for an extremely limited three month run. An appropriately themed afternoon tea was held on Friday, June 14th, featuring Executive Chairman of Carnival Films, Gareth Neame, and members of the press and socialites (aka social media influencers).

…there is an extended train fight, daresay, ‘train battle’ that of course perked me right up! Lots of metal for Magneto to play with in a train fight!

One of SNL's newest cast members is rising star Chris Redd. Chris is also known for appearing on Netflix' Disjointed and in movies Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping opposite Andy Samberg, The House and A Futile and Stupid Gesture. Yesterday, Redd dropped his new album But Here We Are on Comedy Central Records (available everywhere).

Comics picks of the week, New York Comic Con Edition! Hey, Ho, Let’s Go…To Riverdale! The Ramones meet Archie in Archie Meets The Ramones One-Shot! Hang your brain upside-down with this incredible Francavilla variant cover! … The Avengers and Spidey strike out on their own in the post- CIVIL WAR II Champions #1 from Mark Waid and Humberto Ramos! What a lineup! … Thunder, Thunder, Thunder, ThunderCats…HO! The Power of Grayskull and The Sword of Omens collide with He-Man/ThunderCats #1 with incredible artwork by Freddie E. Williams II. … See you at the Con? … Picks this week from LeaguePodcast.com.

Before you know it, we’ll be knee deep in garden Santas and then Valentine’s Day cards.

That’s how quick American holiday retail reacts. The practically tell you start celebrating next year’s holiday as soon as one is over.

And if those Madison Ave. captains of industry had their way, they would, by gum.

On this first half of October, why not get into the mood with some Halloween books, some innocent and some spooky!

We check out Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #1 in the new Archie Horror line, then Costume Quest: Invasion of the Candy Snatchers and then again, back to Riverdale for your more traditional World of Archie Comics Digest #43.

Vibrating into the end of this very column you’ll also find a nod to the Cosmic Treadmill as The Flash debuts on TV this week, and ComiXology hosts Flash Season 0 #3 for the Digital Chaser, written by show runner Andrew Kreisberg and drawn by fan favorite Phil Hester!

Hot off of the heels of this year’s Afterlife with Archie is Roberto Aguirre Sacasa’s Dark Shadows-esque take on Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

Carefully placing Sabrina (and Salem) as a teenager in the 1960s, once again Archie has stepped up the horror comics game. With familiar characters being dropped into situations we haven’t seen before —Chilling Adventures of Sabrina will sure to be the hit everyone is talking about this month. And what better month than Halloween to get dark and eerie!

We’re given a deep origin to how Sabrina came to live with aunts Hilda and Zelda, and the mystery of her parents. When moving to the new town of Greendale after her powers start to get stronger, Ambrose (her cousin, a male witch) is reintroduced to the family and influences Sabrina to take on more risks, such as glamor spells.

In school, she meets her new best friend and romantic rival, Rosalind. They both have their eye on the accident prone but charming Harvey Kinkle. Could Sabrina be coaxed into using a love potion to get Harvey’s attention? You should read to find out.

What I’ve described above doesn’t get at the essence of this chilling adventure. In fact, the plot points are fairly standard Archie fare when recapped like this. What is great about this book is largely the tone set by artist Robert Hack. Like Francavilla before him, he’s cartooning with great action, fantasy and setting the tone with every action. His classic, movie poster style brings the 60s to your mind’s eye in a way rivaled only by weathered paperback covers or fully rendered Bill Sienkiewicz pages.

The gushing doesn’t end there, folks. A big bad introduced by the end of the issue with make your shiver from the inside out.

We don’t rate comics in this column as a rule, the closest we can come to that is this is a must-read. Go buy it.

Pick up any variant covers you see as well. The Rosemary’s Baby cover is my favorite.

Afterlife with Archie: Book One collects the first five issues of Archie’s first horror comic that oozes blood, terror and Archie family in-jokes that is sure to make you run from Riverdale.

Don’t run too far, because the art is by Francesco Francavilla and is written by screenwriter Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Glee, Big Love) who’s understanding of the Archie-verse allows him to turn this town on it’s head.

His most spectacular feat is making transforming Jughead into a monster of Freddy or Jason proportions.

Zombies. Halloween Dance. Teenage romance. ‘Don’t go in there’.

The most unsuspecting comics company took a turn for the morbid with this series.

With the announcement of a Sabrina the Teenage Witch series in the same bloody vein, it looks like the supermarket comic crowd is in for a terrifying surprise.

All is well this Valentine’s Day. The champagne or sparkling grape juice is chilled and the Rat Pack playlist has been chosen. After dinner and chocolates, you and your sweetie, (perhaps just by yourself) are getting into bed with rose petals and a big fat juicy stack of comics. That’s right, Earth Prime Time has your most romantic four-color stories this week to read to your baby this Valentine’s Day.

The modern caption would say, “…In the arms of a Media Blogger!!” - Love Romances - Jack ‘King’ Kirby

King of Comics, Jack Kirby and partner Joe Simon are known for creating Captain America in 1941. Jack and Joe spent most of the 40s and 50s creating all manner of heroes and funny books but were strangely passionate about the romance genre of comics. Panels that permeate pop culture were later stolen by artist Roy Lichtenstein in the style of Kirby and Simon’s Young Love, Young Romance and In Love books. Initially it was Simon’s idea to get pulp readers to pick up 10¢ illustrated tales of torrid romances, triangles and scandal. Dressing the girls and boys in current hairstyles and high fashion helped move the books along, as well as rare photo covers featuring bombshell cheerleaders. [Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby’s Romance ComicsHardcover, Fantagraphics]

I learned last week while meeting my friend’s wife for the first time that you are to say “Congratulations” to the groom and “Best Wishes” to the bride. Today we double up on the congrats because Lt. Kevin Keller of Archie Comics is getting married to a Dr. Clay Walker in Life with Archie #16 on the shelves today.

Lieutenant Kevin meets the good doctor after recovering from an injury in the Iraq War. Some have hypothesized that Riverdale is in Mississippi, home state of Archie creator John Goldwater. That’s likely not accurate, as Mississippi has prohibited same-sex marriage since 1997, and has since amended the Mississippi Constitution in 2004 to drive the point home.